The Past Simple

Uses:

1. You use the Past Simple to talk about an action which happened and finished in the past. There is a
space between the time when the action happened, and the time when you are speaking or writing about it.

He kicked the ball into the net.

I went home early because I had a headache.
The police found a dead body in the river.

2. You often use words or phrases such as at midnight, on Tuesday, in 1992, yesterday, and last year
with the Past Simple, to draw attention to the time when something happened. For example:

Our visitors arrived yesterday.

Where did you go last week?
The war ended in 1945.

Exercises:

1) Answer the questions using Past Simple.

1. When and where did you first meet your best friend?
2. How did you look like when you were ten?
3. What was your favourite toy and how did it look like?
4. When did you last go to cinema and what did you see?
5. Who was your first English teacher and what was he/she like?

2) Use these adverbs of time to make sentences in Past Simple.

1. yesterday 5. last December

2. two weeks ago 6. three days ago
3. last summer 7. before I was born
4. in 2001 8. late last night

3) Put the verbs in brackets in a correct form.

My brother _______ (arrive) about six in the evening. He _______ (come) in and it ______ (be) the first
time I had seen him. He ________ (wear) a red coat and _______ (look) very lively. Mother ________
(get) up and ________ (kiss) him, but father only ______ (say). 'How are you?' Then we _______ (have)
tea, all of us staring at my brother. A few days later he ________ (set off) again, and my mother _______
(stand) in the middle of the road, watching. He _______ (walk) smartly down the lane until his red coat
was no bigger than a poppy. Then the tree _______ (hide) him. We never ______ (see) him again.